Still Fighting over the Battleship Graf Spee

Posted on by April 16, 2010

There is an interesting ongoing conflict  over the  salvaging of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee which was scuttled in the River Plate in 1939.   A Uruguayan businessman has been salving parts of the Graf Spee for the last ten years but has been blocked from displaying or selling part of the ship by political pressure from the government of Germany.   The German government has called for the salvaged portions of the ship to be displayed in a museum rather than auctioned to the public.  The German government is concerned in particular that a giant bronze eagle with spread wings with a swastika under its talons which had been on the stern of the ship could land in the hands of Nazi-memorabilia fanatics.

Uruguay demands concrete help from Germany to salvage sunken ship

Nazi ship wreckage from Uruguay should be in museum: Germany

USS Dewey and the Olympia

Posted on by April 16, 2010
Dewey on the Olympia at Manila Bay

I am not sure if it is irony or merely a confirmation that Faulkner was right – the past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past.  Not long after the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia announced that it didn’t have the money to care for the cruiser Olympia, (or even the money to dredge the channel to tow her away,) the US Navy has commissioned a new USS Dewey.  This is the third Navy ship named in honor of Admiral of the Navy George Dewey, hero of the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War.   Admiral Dewey’s flagship during the battle was, of course, the USS Olympia.

USS Dewey Commissioned at Seal Beach

Tsunami warning came too late for Robinson Crusoe Island

Posted on by April 16, 2010

In early February we observed the anniversary of the rescue of Alexander Selkirk from the tiny island Mas a Tierra,  in the Juan Fernandez archipelago off the coast of Chile. Selkirk would be the model for Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Mas a Tierra would become known as Robinson Crusoe Island.  Tragically, the island has been devastated by a tsunami following the recent earthquake.  The village of Juan Bautista was largely destroyed and nine people were killed by a wall of water reported to up to 5 meters high.

Tsunami warning came too late for Robinson Crusoe Island
Continue reading →

Centuries-old Baltic shipwrecks found

Posted on by April 16, 2010

Centuries-old Baltic shipwrecks found

A dozen centuries-old shipwrecks — some of them unusually well-preserved — have been discovered in the Baltic Sea by a gas company building an underwater pipeline between Russia and Germany, Swedish experts said Tuesday.

The oldest wreck probably dates back to medieval times and could be up to 800 years old, while the others are likely from the 17th to 19th centuries, said Peter Norman, of Sweden’s National Heritage Board.

The 12 wrecks are in Sweden’s economic zone but not in the planned route of the pipeline, the Swedish heritage board said. Nord Stream, which plans to start construction in April, has promised to make sure its activities don’t damage the wrecks, it said.

The heritage board said three of the wrecks have intact hulls and are lying upside-down at a depth of 130 metres

France captures 35 ‘pirates’ in three days off the Somali coast

Posted on by April 16, 2010

France captures 35 ‘pirates’ in three days off the Somali coast

The French Navy has captured 35 suspected pirates in three days of operations off the coast of Somalia — the biggest haul in the two years since EU naval ships started patrolling the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

In operations over the weekend the Nivose, a French frigate, seized four mother ships and six skiffs. In one raid on Sunday, French and EU forces used helicopters and fired warning shots to stop and capture a mother ship and two accompanying vessels.

The prisoners are expected to be flown to Kenya, which is already prosecuting about 100 pirates on behalf of Western nations with forces in the area.

The French Navy and special forces have captured nearly 100 pirates and killed half a dozen since a luxury French yacht was captured in April 2008. About ten pirates are awaiting trial in French jails.

New ferry to start Tonga service in November

Posted on by April 16, 2010

Olovaha

Early last August the Tongan ferry, Princess Ashika, sank with a presumed loss over seventy lives.  See our previous posts  – Princess Akisha.   A new ferry, the Olovaha, for the route is being built in Japan, with Japanese funding and is expected to go into service in November.  Until them New Zealand has donated a 45.5m flat-bottomed barge for use as a temporary inter-island ferry.   The barge ferry service is to start from the first week of April and operate until the arrival of the new ferry from Japan.

Under Sail : A Boy’s Voyage Around Cape Horn by Felix Reisenberg – A Review

Posted on by July 15, 2010

Under Sail is a remarkable account of sixteen year old Felix Riesenberg’s first voyage on a square rigger from South Street Seaport in New York, to Honolulu and back. He sailed on the A.J. Fuller, a Bath built, copper clad, wooden hulled, three skysail yard medium clipper in the waning days of the age of sail.

Riesenberg’s prose is clear and concise yet vivid. He captures the both the beauty and the hardship of windjammer sailing, as well as the often complicated personalities of his shipmates. He sat down to write Under Sail in his mid-thirties, having served both as officer and able seaman. What makes Under Sail so engaging is that Reisenberg’s views are nuanced. He understands and sympathizes with those on both sides of the mast. He knows, first hand, the nearly impossible demands made on the captain and mates as well as the hardships suffered by the able seamen.
Continue reading →

Trafalgar cannons fired to honor Admiral Lord Collingwood

Posted on by April 16, 2010

Trafalgar cannons fired to mark 200th anniversary

Cannons which last saw action at the Battle of Trafalgar are fired on Tyneside to mark the 200th anniversary of Admiral Lord Collingwood’s death.   They were last used in battle on board Collingwood’s vessel Royal Sovereign as it led British ships in 1805.

Collingwood was born in 1748 and went to sea at the age of 13. At Trafalgar in 1805 he was Nelson’s second-in-command and as Nelson lay mortally wounded it was Collingwood who directed the fleet to victory. He died at sea on 7 March 1810.

Read the rest of the article

Hull trawler, Arctic Corsair, joins SS Great Britain and Royal Yacht on Historic Ships Register

Posted on by April 16, 2010

Hull trawler joins SS Great Britain and Royal Yacht on Historic Ships Register

An historic trawler berthed in Hull’s Museum Quarter has joined the ss Great Britain, HMS Victory and the Royal Yacht Britannia on the list of the nation’s most treasured historic vessels.

Arctic Corsair, Hull’s last sidewinder trawler, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Vessels after it met the final criteria for inclusion. It was built in Beverley by Cook, Welton and Gemmell 50 years ago.